Naruto and the Awesome Wrath of the Assassin
by Coleiosis
Summary: Naruto remembers a dark time of years ago, but he does not know that this is all leading up to a surprise return of a villain from Kyata's past. How can Naruto face this monster if he is blamed for a serious crime?


Naruto and the Awesome Wrath of the Assassin

By Cole Bezotte

The day after my cousin Kyata died, things were starting to fall apart with the loss of our great friend. I, Naruto Uzumaki, had found life to be difficult without any family to look after. Even Jean and Bean had fallen into such grief, experiencing the same thing. Both of their parents had died years ago, so they had to look after each other throughout all those years until finally coming to their current career (newspaper men). At least they now earn lots of money from doing their job; people are always eager to find out what's going on in the Leaf Village; especially if there's an Uzumaki involved in ANYTHING.

And so, after Kyata's burial, Jean and Bean were at the close-empty home, eating supper, with no one else around. "It's been like this for three years," Jean spoke up after a while, "that we had to eat on our own without the happy family around."

"Three years down that river," Bean replied, "until Kyata came back to this village and reunited with us. Now we have to face this situation again now that the entire Kuzundhai family is dead."

"But there is still one person in the entire clan that is still alive today: Naruto. I merely wish to stick with him, but he won't take Kyata off his mind."

"Neither can WE. And yet…" Bean stopped talking for a moment and thought of something. "The way that Naruto watched Kyata die on the spot..."

"What about it?" Jean asked.

"Naruto looked as if he EXPECTED it to happen. He looked like he wanted Kyata to perish."

"Now that's just crazy!"

"I'm serious, Jean! Didn't you see him?"

Outside the house, I secretly watched through the window, eavesdropping on the conversation. My heart thumped hard as I heard the secret that Bean spilled upon his brother. "They suspect!" I thought aloud. "Now I'm really in for it! I must go quickly! I have to get out of this village!"

With that, I ran out of Kyata's yard and started heading for the exit. I ran out of the village before anybody can catch me in my own act. I did not bother bringing food or clothing with me; instead I went out in the condition that I was in.

Meanwhile, somewhere off in the distance stood a mysterious man on a small hill. "How surprising," the man thought as he saw me run off. "I never knew that he would suddenly run off in fear. But nobody saw him get away but me. Now is your chance, my assassin." The man turned to another mysterious figure next to him. "Now you must go into the village and cause havoc among everybody. I will persuade the real Naruto to come back, acting like the village has forgiven him. And once he comes in, the village will lock him up, thinking that HE caused all the damage.

"He has been in prison before, and it shall happen again. I enjoyed hearing the news about him being taken to the inescapable prison. Now I want to see him go there again! Go, my assassin! Please your master as you bring our plan to success!" The second figure went away, doing the duty that his master (the first figure) assigned him. The one figure adjusted his eye-patch as he smiled wickedly. "The whole world will never know the doing of all the multi-tailed Foxes! They'll never find me even if they searched every corner of this earth. For it has not been long since the spell that Kyata put on me wore off after his death. I managed to escape from the deep ground and freed myself of the terror put upon me. I am now a blood-thirsty terrorist! I AM COUNT COBRA!"

Cobra laughed evilly, assuring himself that his latest plan will succeed. Now that his assassin had gone to do his business, things were starting to get even worse.

The next morning, Jean and Bean came looking for me throughout the entire village. They searched everywhere, not finding the slightest trace of me. I didn't leave a note before running off, nor did I give a clue about my whereabouts. So it all seemed pretty hopeless for the poor guys.

"Why did he just run off like that?" Jean kept on asking himself as he paced the floor. "It's not like him to do that. Perhaps we have been too hard on him. Maybe he had listened to our conversation and found out what we thought of."

And where was I at the time? Well, I was still in the forest, waking up from such a light sleep. And yet, I was starving, desperate for food that would fill my energy. But I did not think about going back to the village. I decided that it was every man for himself; so I gathered some grass and whatever fruit that grew on the nearby trees. "This may not be as satisfying as what the village makes," I thought, "but I'll try to savor this as best as I can."

Meanwhile, back at the Leaf Village, Jean and Bean got the surprise of their life. The assassin, the one that Cobra had hired, had come disguised as me, easily fooling the two brothers into thinking that I had come back. "Well," Bean spoke up as he saw the imposter. "Look who's here!"

"Welcome back, Naruto!" Jean said with a warming smile and handshake. "We've been very worried about you. I want to talk with you about something later today. It's very important."

As Bean walked away from the scene, thoughts of doubt and darkness started rumbling through his mind: "The next thing I know, we'll be meeting our fate at the hands of the Creature. It's lashing tails will put us out of our misery if Naruto does the impossible."

Jean continued talking to the fake me: "I'll meet you after Bean and I had done our jobs. It won't be long."

The imposter went over to my place and looked into the mirror of my bathroom. He looked at himself, seeing that his disguise had easily fooled everyone. "It worked!" he said aloud, but making sure that no one heard him. "My disguise is certainly a bluff that paid off! My hairstyle is shaped correctly; the fake fox whiskers stuck to my face well, never dropping down; those special contact lenses made the correct eye color; and I managed to steal the real Naruto's headband. I even managed to sew together Naruto's normal outfit. Now that I look just like the real Naruto Uzumaki, they will all be fooled once the damage to the village is done! That Cobra is a genius!"

But the assassin was not able to put everything together so soon. I was still not satisfied by what I've been living on in the forest. I soon became disgusted by what I've been doing lately. I thought to myself for a long while that perhaps this was a mistake running off into this place just like that. Perhaps… maybe what Jean and Bean said was merely a hypothesis. Perhaps they were merely assuming things!

However, I had to think twice about this. There was a time back then (about three years ago) that I saw a note that made me very angry. At that time, Kyata was writing a letter to Iruka Umino, thanking him for all the support and training that he had provided him throughout the years. But somehow, another person had wrote a note in Kyata's handwriting (as best as he could), claiming to have planned a time to hunt me down and remove the Creature into the open world. I thought that Kyata had written that note himself; I thought that he wanted to assassinate me. Someone had done an excellent job doing Kyata's handwriting, so I was easily fooled.

And so, I did the most terrible thing that I had ever done. I later met Kyata out in the village, ready to finally end this gossip once and for all. I came after him and attacked him, seeing him bleed so easily because of his ill brain. He couldn't stand a chance against me. And I think I recall igniting on fire while beating the poor guy up. In fact, I almost MURDERED him in the impact. Kyata never wanted to fight back at me; he is very sensitive when it comes to fighting his own allies. The fight only lasted for a short time; someone soon came and tried to see what was going on. I managed to get away fast so that no one could know that it was I who caused all the mess on poor Kyata.

As I hid behind a building, I saw Kyata's father Korondia taking the injured ninja-wannabe back home. I saw Korondia say the very words that made my heart pump heavily in fear: "Who did this?!"

Kyata couldn't reply at first while engulfed in the pain that I set him in. But later, I recall hearing Kyata saw who hurt him hard. He told his parents that I did this to him. After that, I did not see him again for a very long time until he came back from that river three years later. It's stupid of me: when Kyata and I were kids, I gave him that visit. But later, after all he's done to try to remain innocent, I started to hate him.

I felt that now was the time to apologize and say that I was sorry for all that I had done. But I had to keep on asking myself: "If Kyata did not write that note, then who did? Who tried to hunt me down? I have to find out fast!" So I took off the same way that I came into the forest and soon found myself at the main gate of the Leaf Village. As I arrived, Cobra (off in the distance where I couldn't see him) started having second thoughts about his plan. "What the heck?!" he thought. "He's here so soon?! I did not want this to happen! I hope my assassin is doing his best. He must not fail me!"

And so, as I arrived back into the village, there was no one there at first. It took me a matter of ten seconds to see what was REALLY going on. I soon saw that people were panicking and running through the streets, avoiding a new danger that lurked in the village. I had to get a closer look to see what was happening. It was the assassin, disguised as me, causing chaos and murders throughout the place. I thought that somehow, I gained a split-personality that was my exact opposite. But it would be impossible; I had already fought an evil incarnation of myself.

I thought that this was the perfect opportunity to prove to the world that I was indeed a hero. I may not have saved my cousin from dying, but I may have a chance to save the whole village itself from this imposter. I dove into the scene, catching the assassin off-guard and throwing him off balance. He fell down to the ground after I threw him hard across the street. But he was skilled and agile enough to get back up to his feet and charge right back at me, blowing me hard in the chest. His fists were like solid gold, and I thought he actually broke one of my ribs. In fact, he ALMOST broke something; but that didn't stop me from fighting back. I soon picked him up again and tossed him aside, scraping him across the street.

Off in the distance, Cobra was madder than ever. "This is not what I wanted!" he thought aloud. "Curse that ninja! And yet, he doesn't know whom he's really fighting." But then, an awful, evil idea struck his mind. "What if the end result was just like years ago? I'll use NARUTO as my tool to victory!" I don't remember the rest of his idea that he thought up, but I'll catch on to that soon.

Anyway, Jean and Bean saw what was going on, astonished at the ordeal of our fight. "What's all this?!" they kept on exclaiming. "Two Narutos?! What the heck is going on here?!"

They couldn't tell the difference between the two of us, even though I didn't have my headband on. The assassin stole my headband to go along with the disguise. Finally, Jean and Bean thought that they had to do something about this quick. So they took a large sack and trapped the assassin inside, leaving him in there helplessly. As the imposter was being caught in there, the headband dropped to the ground. I reached down to pick it up and tie it back onto my head.

"Tell us now!" Jean demanded towards me. "Which one of you is the real Naruto?!"

"Jean…" I replied, "you're talking to yours truly."

"Is that really you, Naruto!? I'm so sorry for what I said yesterday, but I need to ask you something…"

"I already know. I tried to kill Kyata years ago, and so I want so say that I'm sorry for attempting to do such a thing. I almost expected Kyata's death to happen, but I regret that."

"Now THERE'S the Naruto that we know!" Jean said cheerfully. "Welcome, back!"

"May I ask…?" Bean came in as he held the assassin in the bag, "what shall we do with this imposter?"

"Reveal his true identity," Jean replied as he removed the sack and let the assassin out.

I stepped forward, ready to remove the disguise that the fake me wore. "Allow me," I said as I removed the rubber mask from his head. To my astonishment, I did not see any real face underneath. It was another mask, covering half of the assassin's real face. It was a mask like Kakashi's, except it allowed both eyes to see out. At first, I thought I recognized the two eyes that looked at me hatefully; it reminded me of someone, but I couldn't put my finger to it. The assassin's hair was blond like mine, except longer and more messed-up.

"You may have caught me," the assassin spoke up as he started to run off away from us, "but you won't win our next battle! Soon, we will have the upper hand! Hail Cobra!"

That name struck my heart hard as I heard it being said. "Cobra!" I exclaimed, surprised. "I never knew that he'd still be alive! He must have broken free of that spell that Kyata put on him!"

"Look!" Bean came in as he picked something up from the ground. It was a list of certain people that the assassin planned to kill. The names crossed off were ones that had already been killed, while the ones that were NOT crossed off were still alive. I gasped in horror as I saw that my name was on the list, as well as Jean's and Bean's. "I'll give you three guesses for whom he's going to strike at next," Jean said as he read through the list with me.

"This isn't right," I said, feeling like crying. "Kyata's name is on here as well."

"But I didn't even see how he died. I was at the past as well as he was, but I didn't see how he died. The assassin might have done it, or…"

The Mutant Clocks had such amazing power that Warcress and Malantin had given them. All of time would have been dead if it weren't for my brave and bold cousin. He managed to save all of time through his great courage and bravery, also saving my mother. And yet, could Kyata be somehow connected with the assassin?!

**TO BE CONTINUED!**


End file.
